University Blogshttp://wp.vcu.edu
Fri, 07 Nov 2014 03:46:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1WordPress Dashboards Will Be Unavailable on November 7th, From 6 to 9 a.m.http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/11/05/dashboards-unavailable/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/11/05/dashboards-unavailable/#commentsThu, 06 Nov 2014 03:46:28 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=744The administrative dashboards for all sites on VCU’s instance of WordPress on wp.vcu.edu will be unavailable on the morning of Friday, November 7th, as the University Computer Center will be working on the database servers.

Content on wp.vcu.edu that is CAS-restricted will also be unavailable. All other published content will remain publicly accessible.

The upgrade is scheduled to last from 6 to 9 a.m. Please contact the VCU helpIT Center (828-2227, helpIT@vcu.edu) with any questions.

We appreciate your understanding.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/11/05/dashboards-unavailable/feed/0Major Facelift for wp.vcu.edu Dashboardshttp://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/03/17/major-facelift-for-wp-vcu-edu-dashboards/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/03/17/major-facelift-for-wp-vcu-edu-dashboards/#commentsMon, 17 Mar 2014 17:28:49 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=598Update: This change has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 27, at 7:30 a.m.

The dashboards for sites on wp.vcu.edu will soon be getting a major facelift. We will be upgrading WordPress to version 3.8, which “brings a fresh new look to the entire admin dashboard,” according to its makers. Watch the video below to learn more about all of the changes the update will bring.

We normally update WordPress quietly, and you likely don’t notice when we do. However, this update overhauls the dashboard so significantly that we wanted to make you aware of the changes. Read the blog post announcing WordPress 3.8 to read about these changes in more detail.

At the same time, we will be making some tweaks and adjustments behind the scenes. These should provide wp.vcu.edu with a performance boost.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/03/17/major-facelift-for-wp-vcu-edu-dashboards/feed/0Unused Personal Blogs to be Deleted on February 18http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/02/04/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-february-18/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/02/04/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-february-18/#commentsTue, 04 Feb 2014 19:05:11 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=589As part of routine maintenance on VCU’s WordPress installation, a number of unused personal blogs will be deleted on Tuesday, February 18. The following criteria were used to identify the blogs that will be deleted:

the blog’s path (the first part of the URL after wp.vcu.edu/) is the same as the owner’s eID; AND

the blog has no published posts, pages or attachments, or there is only the default ‘Hello World!’ post or ‘Sample Page’ page; AND

the blog has not been updated since September 1, 2013.

Owners of these blogs will be notified by email that their blogs are scheduled for deletion. If there are any questions, please email the VCU Webmaster.

Update: Additionally, blogs belonging to former students or former employees will also be deleted. These former users will not be notified by email.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2014/02/04/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-february-18/feed/0WordPress Dashboards Will Be Unavailable on June 15, From 9 to 10:30 a.m.http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/06/14/wordpress-dashboards-will-be-unavailable-on-june-15-from-9-to-1030-a-m/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/06/14/wordpress-dashboards-will-be-unavailable-on-june-15-from-9-to-1030-a-m/#commentsFri, 14 Jun 2013 15:24:57 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=497The administrative dashboards for all sites on VCU’s instance of WordPress on wp.vcu.edu will be unavailable on the morning of Saturday, June 15, as the University Computer Center increases the RAM in one of its database servers.

Content on wp.vcu.edu that is CAS-restricted will also be unavailable. All other published content will remain publicly accessible.

The upgrade is scheduled to last from 9 to 10:30 a.m., though the official Change Management entry says it may be completed in less time. The change has been scheduled to minimize any disruption. Please contact the VCU helpIT Center (828-2227, helpIT@vcu.edu) with any questions.

We appreciate your understanding.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/06/14/wordpress-dashboards-will-be-unavailable-on-june-15-from-9-to-1030-a-m/feed/0WordPress Downtime: Saturday, March 9, 6 – 10 a.m.http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/02/28/wordpress-downtime-saturday-march-9-6-10-a-m/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/02/28/wordpress-downtime-saturday-march-9-6-10-a-m/#commentsThu, 28 Feb 2013 14:01:59 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=465VCU’s instance of WordPress on wp.vcu.edu will be unavailable on the morning of Saturday, March 9, as the University Computer Center upgrades its database server. During this time, published content and administrative functionality will be inaccessible.

The upgrade is scheduled to last four hours, though the official Change Management entry says it may be completed in less time. The change has been scheduled to minimize any disruption. Please contact the VCU helpIT Center (828-2227, helpIT@vcu.edu) with any questions.

We appreciate your understanding.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2013/02/28/wordpress-downtime-saturday-march-9-6-10-a-m/feed/0More Ham, Less Spam With Akismethttp://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/11/15/more-ham-less-spam-with-akismet/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/11/15/more-ham-less-spam-with-akismet/#commentsThu, 15 Nov 2012 20:09:14 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=435Akismet, a web service offered by the creators of WordPress.com to help control spam, is now in full effect across every site on wp.vcu.edu. That means you should see a significant decrease in the amount of spam comments requiring your moderation.

Each time a new comment, trackback, or pingback is added to your site it’s submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down. As a result, you don’t have to waste your time sorting through and deleting spammy comments from your blog.

Update: You can set a couple of configuration options for Akismet by going to Jetpack > Akismet Configuration on your dashboard. You can also view your ham versus spam stats at Jetpack > Akismet Stats. (Note that Jetpack does not need to be enabled for you to use Akismet, which is already enabled for everyone — they are both simply developed by Automattic, the creators of wordpress.com.)

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/11/15/more-ham-less-spam-with-akismet/feed/0Unused Personal Blogs to be Deleted on June 15http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/06/07/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-june-15/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/06/07/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-june-15/#commentsThu, 07 Jun 2012 17:00:35 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=364As part of routine maintenance on VCU’s WordPress installation, a number of unused personal blogs will be deleted on Friday, June 15. The following criteria were used to identify the blogs that will be deleted:

the blog’s path (the first part of the URL after wp.vcu.edu/) is the same as the owner’s eID; AND

the blog has no published posts, or the only published post is the default ‘Hello World!’ post; AND

the blog has not been updated since April 15, 2012.

Owners of these blogs will be notified by email that their blogs are scheduled for deletion. If there are any questions, please email the VCU Webmaster.

Most of these personal blogs were created automatically when a user logged in for the first time, a policy which has since changed. Deleting these blogs will have no effect on their owners’ privileges on non-personal blogs.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/06/07/unused-personal-blogs-to-be-deleted-on-june-15/feed/0New Procedure for Creating Personal Blogshttp://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/27/new-procedure-for-creating-personal-blogs/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/27/new-procedure-for-creating-personal-blogs/#commentsFri, 27 Apr 2012 13:04:23 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=318We recently changed the way that personal blogs are created. Before this week, a user’s personal blog would automatically be created the first time the user logged in; the new blog’s URL would be created by appending the user’s VCU eID to http://wp.vcu.edu/.

Personal blogs are no longer created automatically. Instead, we have added a widget (shown below) to the dashboard from which a user can create his or her personal blog at any point in the future. The URL structure for personal blogs remains the same, and each user’s eID is reserved for that user’s blog.

Some users may have no intention of maintaining a personal blog on wp.vcu.edu and log in solely to manage a departmental or group blog or site. Now, such users have control over whether to create a personal blog or not.

]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/27/new-procedure-for-creating-personal-blogs/feed/0New Plugin: VCU Dateshttp://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/24/new-plugin-vcu-dates/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/24/new-plugin-vcu-dates/#commentsTue, 24 Apr 2012 19:17:40 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=314There’s a new plugin available for activation on your blog — it’s called VCU Dates, and it lets you easily create and publish content that you wanted sorted by a date other than the date of publication. It’s ideal for date-specific content geared towards a small audience, such as an internal departmental event or a course assignment with a due date. You can read more about it and its features — such as a feed you can use on your departmental website, custom widget and more — on the VCU Dates overview page.
]]>http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/04/24/new-plugin-vcu-dates/feed/0Embedding Video in Postshttp://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/01/30/embedding-video-in-posts/
http://wp.vcu.edu/blog/2012/01/30/embedding-video-in-posts/#commentsMon, 30 Jan 2012 15:47:05 +0000http://wp.vcu.edu/?p=238There are two options for embedding media inside the VCU WordPress system.

The first way is simply pasting the url of the embedded media into the “Visual” post field, like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxDjML2ldw

The second option allows you a little more control over your embed. This involves wrapping the link in an embed shortcode — use this option when you want to retain control of the dimensions of the embed by declaring height and width properties, like so:

[embed height="180" width="320"]. . .[/embed]

Of course, be sure to replace the ellipsis with an actual link.

Bear in mind that this only works with sites that have been whitelisted by WordPress, but this list includes all the usual suspects, like

YouTube (only public videos – “unlisted” and “private” videos will not embed)